Townsend's library of national, state and individual records, 1860-1870. Including all attainable information up to the present time (1888) concerning individuals and events connected with that decade

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Copy 1

TowNSEND's Library

NATIONAL, STATE/INDIVIDUAL RECORDS,

1860=1870.

INCLUDING ALL ATTAINABLE INFORMATION UP TO THE PRESENT

TIME (1888), CONCERNING INDIVIDUALS AND EVENTS

CONNECTED WITH THAT DECADE.

28 Years of Labor, and an Expenditure of $25,000, by a
Private Citizen, on a Work of National Importance.

50th Congress,
1st Session,

S. 1,700.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

January 26, 1888,

Mr. Hawley introduced the following bill, which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Library :

A BILL

Authorizing the Librarian of Congress to purchase " Townsend's Library of National,
State, and Individual Records, comprising a collection of Historical Records
concerning the Origin, Progress, and Consequences of the late Civil War.

Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America, in Congress assetnbled :

That the Librarian of Congress be and he is hereby authorized and directed to
purchase " Townsend's Library of National, State, and Individual Records, compris-
ing a collection of Historical Records concerning the Origin, Progress, and Conse-
quences of the late Civil War," at a price not exceeding thousand dollars
which amount, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby
appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

"There is not an hour, during a Session of Congress, when some fact, to confirm
history or refute misrepresentation, is not found necessary, and the difficulty of
obtaining a place to which immediate and reliable reference can be had, is con-
stantly felt. Mr. Townsend has supplied this important desideratum." — Washington
Chronicle.

Glass ^^JA-
Book Tj<<>L

;

JOURNALISTIC RECORD COMPRISES ABOUT ONE HUNDRED VOLUMES, CONTAINING SIXTY THOUSAND HACEb, (iR IWll III MiKID AND FORTY

THOUSAND COLUMNS, EQUAL TO TWICE THAT NUMBER OF ORDINARY SIZE BOOK COLUMNS.
THE DIGEST, WHEN COMPLETED, WILL BE IN ABOUT THIRTY VOLUMES, CONTAINING THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND PAGES OF MANUSCRIPT, EACH

VOLUME THE SIZE OF THE LARGEST BANK LF.DGERS.
THE INDEX TO THE DIGEST, WHICH IS THE KEY TO THE WHOLE WORK, IS IN ONE VOLUME.

3., ^

TowNSEiND's Library

fyim^, State and Ipividu/l fJECoi^DS

1860=1870.

INCLUDING ALL ATTAINABLE INFORMATION UP TO THE

PRESENT TIME (1888), CONCERNING INDIVIDUALS AND

EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THAT DECADE.

28 Years of Labor, and an Expenditure of $25,000,

by a Private Citizen, on a Work of

National Importance.

Styles & Cash, Printers and Stationers, 77 Eighth Avenue.

1888.

r^'o-

TOWNSEND^S LIBRARY

National, State and Individual Records.

SOME OPINIONS.

The Comte de Paris. — " It is a work of the greatest value,
but seems beyond the strength of a single man in the limits of a
single life."

General Grant. — " 1 heartily endorse the sentiments ex-
pressed by the Comte de 'Paris, in his letter of July 27, 1883."

Governor Horatio Seymour. — "I look upon the work as a
miracle of labor, arrangement, and execution. It is not only
necessary to the historian, but will be of great value to our gov-
ernment in the event of war or hostile complications with other
nations."

Dr. Cogswell, the Organizer and First Superintendent of the
Astor Library. — "As a chronological and synchronous record of
the events, it is mo're minute, and more authentic than could be
formed in any other way ; and as documentary material for the
historian of those events, it is absolutely indispensable. Its
voluminousness might render it inconvenient in use, but for its
perfectly systematic arrangement, which, with its minute aiid com-
plete index, obviate all objections on that score, and render
THE WORK as easy to be consulted as if it were comprised in a single
volume. The manifest labor, time and cost, which must have
been bestowed upon this great work," says Dr. Cogswell, in con-
clusion, " warrants the inference that it will not be duplicated ;
and hence it is to be hoped it will belong to the Nation, and
be deposited where it will be most convenient of access."

Williain Cu/len Bryant. — " The age has given birth to few-
literary undertakings that will bear comparison with this work.
The compiling of a lexicon in any language is nothing to it.
The forty academicians who compiled the Dictionary of the
French Language had a far less laborious task."

Rev. Henry W. Bellows., Presidefit of the United States Sani-
tary Commission. — " I do not believe that another man could be
found in the country who would have devoted his life, almost
entirely, to an undertaking of like importance and magnitude."
Adding: "It seems almost a providential felicity that such a
curious and unique record exists."

Col. Duncan K. McRae, of the late Confederate Artny and for
some time Agent for the Confederate Government in Europe. — " I
regard Mr. Townsend's work as one of wonderful val-ue. It
really contains a better source of supply for a history of the war
than simply the official records, for he has many (the minutest
often of those), and in addition his cotemporaneous journalistic
narrative, data and statistics, worked up with such elaborate and
systematic method and detail, affords every facility for accurate
history. Its fairness, impartiality and completeness cannot be
too highly extolled."

Hon. John A. Dix. — " I have watched it in its progress with
great interest, and a high appreciation of its great value. Fifty
years from this time it will, undoubtedly, have a value which can-
not be estimated — as indeed it has now."

Rev. S. Irenaeus Prime, Editor of the New York Observer. —
" It is, beyond all dispute, the most remarkable compilation of
ancient or modern times — having no equal before or since the
invention of the art of printing — and future ages will prize it as
one of the chief memorials of the first century of American
Independence."

General P. G. Beauregard. — " After an examination of the
work, General Beauregard expressed the decided opinion that it
should be the property of tiie nation."

Quartermaster ■ General M. C. Meigs said : "It will be impos-
sible to duplicate Mr. Townsend's work, and it must remain the
most complete and minute journal of the events of the Great
Struggle."

The Boston Transcript. — '' It is a wonderful work, and of
great interest to all."

The Boston Post. — " There is one gentleman in the United
States, Mr. Thomas S. Townsend, of New York, who had the
foresight to arrange a systematic plan for making a record of the
successive events of the war."

The Northern Whi^, of Belfast, Ireland. — " The most singu-
lar and interesting record of the war has been compiled by Mr.
Townsend, of New York, and the value of his compilation to a
future historian is inestimable."

The New York Evening Post. — " No work has been compiled
which will convey to posterity a more truthful and perfect his-
tory of the late conflict." And the editors, themselves well known
in the field of historical research, emphatically said, on another
occasion, that '"it is a work of peculiar interest, in that it is the
first attempt ever made to collect and arrange for the convenient
use of future historians the record of great events as given from
day to day, during their occurrence, in the newspaper press."

The New York World. — No such mass of material for the
future historian has ever been gathered by any one of whom we
know or have heard. It is the richest store of current history
that was ever collected, and no historian ever yet had so copious
a store of material to draw upon."

The New York Herald. — " It has been a labor of love with
the author, for otherwise he could never have toiled on for years,
as he has done, without any encouragement, except the knowl-
edge of the benefit he was conferring on mankind. Such a work
as this will lengthen the lives of the great men of the future by
rendering unnecessary the immense waste of time which the
want of ready and reliable information has hitherto imposed on
historical writers."

Resolution of the New York Historical Society. — " Resolved,
that the New York Historical Society acknowledges the services
rendered to the cause of history by Mr. Thomas S. Townsend, of
this city, in the foresight, skill, and perseverance displayed in
the preparation of his work."

Resolution of the Union League Club of Nezv York. — " It
will, in the opinion of this Club, be invaluable, if not indispens-
able, to the future historian, of the sublime struggle through
which our country has just passed."

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The following constitute the GRAND DIVISIONS
of the Compendium, and all of which have their SUB-
DIVISIONS:

BuchanarL s Administration {Latter Days of ). — 400 statements.

Port Sumter. — 175 statements.

The Trent Affair. — 200 statements.

The Federal Government. — Executive, State, Treasury De-
partments, and records of all officers connected therewith.

Congress. — Daily Proceedings, Speeches, Documents con-
nected with the proceedings.

The Confederate Government. — Executive, State, Treasury
Departments, and Records of their officers.

Confederate Congress. — Proceedings, Speeches, and Docu-
ments emanating therefrom.

The Federal Army. — Rules and Regulations, Foreign Officers,
Deserters, Pensions, Prisoners of War, Strength of the Army at
different periods. Military Departments, The Draft, the Army as
compared with those of other nations, Records of Secretary Cam-
eron and Secretary Stanton, West Point, the Sanitary, Christian,
and Allotment Commissions, Colored Troops, Losses in the
War, etc.

The Confederate Army. — An arrangement similar to that of
the " Federal Army."

The Federal Navy.

The Confederate Navy.

Foreign Relations. — See " State Department," " Federal
Government," also " State Department," " Confederate Gov-
ernment."

Union Generals. — Their Records.

Confederate Generals.— T\)<i\x Records.

The Blockade.

Privateering.

Law and Decisions. — International Questions, etc.

Ecclesiastical Documents. — Action of the Churches, North
and South ; Sermons, etc.

Political Prisoners. — Alphabetical Lists, and all statements
concerning each individual.

Heroes. — Dead and Living.

Historical References.

Regimental Records. — Every Regiment, Union and Confed-
erate ; also, Indian Regiments. (The records of Confederate
regiments include the names of all privates as well as officers who
may have been captured or died while prisoners of war).

Battles, Sieges and Skirmishes. — The Virginia Campaign
between Generals Grant and Lee occupies alone 2500 pages of
" The Compendium or Digest."

Speeches. — Speeches delivered throughout the world, in
alphabetical order.

Letters. — Reports, Messages, Correspondence, Proclama-
tions, Poems, Portraits, Maps.

RECONSTRUCTION.

Records of States, Cities, Towns, etc.

Maine. Minnesota.

New Hampshire. Kansas.

Vermont. California.

Massachusetts. Kentucky.

Connecticut. Missouri.

Rhode Island. Oregon.

New York. Nevada.

New Jersey. Colorado.

Pennsylvania. Virginia.

Maryland. North Carolina.

Delaware. South Carolina.

District of Columbia. Georgia.

Western Virginia. Louisiana.

Ohio. Alabama.

Michigan. Arkansas.

Indiana. Mississippi.

Illinois. Tennessee.

Iowa. Florida.

Wisconsin. Texas.

The Territories and Indians.

The Invasion of Mexico.

Canada. — The St. Albans Raid, etc.

Editorials of the Press are classified, and succeed the various
subjects, /. €., editorials on the State of Virginia.

The following list of the Subdivisions of the State of New
York will indicate the scope, plan and arrangement of the
Divisions of all other States and subjects.

THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

The State Government — The Common Council of the City
of New York — Military Documents — The Legislatures — State
Conventions — Political Campaigns — Records of Public Men of
New York — Public and Individual Acts of Patriotism — The
Union Defence Committee — National War Committees — The
Chamber of Commerce — State and Harbor Defences — The Banks,
Financial Matters and the Stock Exchange — The Draft and
the Riots — Plot to Burn the City of New York— General Dix
and the Military Department of New York — The Union League
Club — Historical Documents — The City of Brooklyn, Albany
and other Cities — Editorials on the State of New York.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK.

In 1860, when the first mutterings of the impending storm
gave evidence of startling events in the near future, Mr. Towns-
end grasped the idea of making timely notes of every occurrence
in connection with the crisis. It was in anticipation of the im-
pressive words of Major Theodore Winthrop, who, with an ex-
piring breath, early in the contest, urged that a careful record of
the occurring events of the historical epoch be preserved, that in
the latter days of Buchanan's administration, and six months
before the war, this stupendous work was begun. Of course,
Mr. Townsend, at that early stage of the disturbances, vaguely
foresaw the far-reaching possibilities of the impending conflict,
else his massive collection would never have existed, for no man
would have deemed it practicable or expedient to attempt the
work of faithfully and unremittingly pursuing such an under-
taking. From moderate beginnings it, in time, increased with
the profuse material which continued to flow into the compiler's
hands from all quarters, until, to do the subject ample justice
and diligently follow up the compilation, the assistance of com-

petent clerks became imperative. Seizing upon every published
statement as contributing to the literature of the subject at the
time of publication, the compiler has devoted to the work not
only the years covered by hostilities, but those which have since
followed, until his labors have extended through more than a
quarter of a century, with the result of having brought together
the most extensive collection of data under one head ever
attempted.

THE JOURNALISTIC RECORD.

The work is in three parts — " The Journalistic Record,"
"The Compendium, or Digest," and the Index to the Depart-
ments of the Compendium.

The Record contains everything of National importance
concerning the great conflict — not merely down to the end of
battle-fields, but to the close of the equally important strife con-
nected with the re-organization of the Union by the re-admission
of the seceded States. And in this connection it is essential to
remember that an immense mass of valuable information con-
cerning men and things on all sides, North as well as South, has
been attainable only since the close of the war, as it has been
elicited by the discussions in congress, in legislatures, in histori-
cal societies, in obituary notices, magazine articles — such as
" The Century " and '' The Southern Bivouac " — and in con-
troversies of persons engaged on both sides since the close of
armed strife. No party bias has been allowed to interfere with
the thorough compilation of the descriptive narratives, comments
and reviews of correspondents, journalists, and public men of
every political creed, whether of the North or South.

" The Journalistic Record " comprises 87 volumes, containing
as much printed matter as could be placed in 1200 volumes of
ordinary octavo size. As the arrangement is in four columns
on each page, a curious statistician "calculated" that if the
columns were arranged in a column line, they would measure
nearly one hundred miles.

The preparation of these volumes of " The Record " has
been, however, the least laborious portion of the work, only one-
tenth of the time of the compiler having been occupied upon it,
while nine-tenths have been devoted to the Compendium or Di-
gest, which is not an index, but an analysis of, and guide to, the
contents of this immense collection.

10
THE COMPENDIUM OR DIGEST.

The Compendium or Digest will compHse nearly Thirty
Volumes^ or 40,000 of the largest size pages of manuscript. All
elegantly bound in Russia leather.

To study the history of any particular subject by means of
" The Record " alone would be impossible ; therefore, in order
to make this great mass of information available, the compiler
decided that the mercantile principle of keeping accounts wa:. "•''
true one — to regard " The Journalistic Record," in the lig^
a merchant's day-book, then to journalize the contents of " le
Record," and from the journals to redistribute the entries to
their appropriate departments, in what a merchant would term
his ledger, but which the compiler calls "The Compendium or
Digest." Each fact or statement in a report, or a letter, or in
an editorial, is separately entered in the journal. This portion
of the work requires a journal of 1,200 pages to comprise an
epitome of each of the eighty-seven volumes of "The Record."
These journals or waste books are removed when their entries
are systematically transferred to the various departments of
"The Compendium or Digest." The student or investigator has
now before him in "The Digest " a statement of each subject, so
that the manifold and intricate episodes of the war, its origin,
progress, and consequences, can be developed instantaneously,
whether the suljject relates to military matters or finance, foreign
relations, or State fidelity. Every general, regiment, State, and
battle has its department. As a specimen of the many in-
quiries for information received by the compiler, it may be men-
tioned that, after long and unavailing efforts to obtain certain
facts and documents, General N. P. Banks, in 1870, wrote from
the Capitol to Mr. Townsend, in New York, to obtain (if pos-
sible) a copy of a certain letter. In acknowledging the receipt
of the information he wanted, General Banks wrote that he had
" never before been able to find any person who had seen " the
letter. " 1 am very glad that you have been able to find so clear
a trace of it, for I began to think, so little was it known, that I
might have been mistaken myself in regard to its contents," add-
ing, that this letter is '" one of the most important publications
of the war," and that " the ])reservation of such matters is a
good evidence of the value of your collection."

A solitary example may ilfustrate the manifold ways in which
the Toivnsend Records are referred to concerning the interests

11

and feelings of those who were privates in the ranks, as well as
by prominent officers like Gen. Banks, and others. In a recent
letter, Mr. R. R. Knapp says to Mr. Townsend : " I have to
thank you for the valuable information received through your
' Compendium ' regarding B. Beach Kennedy, formerly of Com-
pany E, in the Sixth U. S. Cavalry. He is suffering from a
wound received in 1862, and is refused a pension because he is
unable to prove that he was wounded at Slatersville. I myself,
aember of his company, was away on detached duty at the
/, and can only testify to my knowledge and belief — others of
ti command are scattered, no one knows where. The officer
in command of the company at the time is out of service, and all
letters fail to reach him. And, but for your valuable information
— even to day and date, this man, who well deserves the pension of
his government, might die for the need of it."

THE INDEX.

The Index is in one volume. To study, for instance, the
record of a general officer, the Index refers to the volumes and
pages of "The Compendium " where the records of Union or
Confederate Generals may be found, and in that department will
be found every item of information concerning the individual,
presented in the eighty-seven volumes of " The Journalistic
Record," with reference in connection with each statement, to
the volume and page of the same for the authority upon which
the entry is recorded.

NEWSPAPER LITERATURE.

' ' Turn to the press, its teeming sheets survey,
Big with the wonders of each passing day."

" The newspapers," said Carlyle, "constitute the essence of
all history. They are the mirrors in which events show them-
selves in their very form and pressure." Turn over the files of
the American journals cotemporary with the Revolution of 1776,
and you will see the value of the living records of the times.
The Hon. John C. Hamilton, in a letter to a friend commendatory
of Mr. Townsend's work, said : " In preparing my ' History of
the Republic of the United States,' I was, excepting the few
papers of my father's, during the period which elapsed between

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1783 and '88, chiefly indebted to the newspapers for the materials
of the work. Unless you have been engaged in a similar labor,
you could not imagine the difficulty of preparing a valuable nar-
rative from merely documentary material."

So, in after generations, the records of the transactions of
our times will be equally marvellous ; and it is not too much to
say that the newspapers of the present age have necessitated a
new style of history.

Daniel Webster said : '" If you want to find genuine history*
you must look for it in the newspapers and in private letters."

" Where can we find greater accuracy than in the leading
newspapers?" said Edward Everett. " The errors which one
paper makes is very speedily corrected by the others, and in
this age of inquiry and debate, if Truth every emerges from the
well in which she is said to abide, it is to clothe herself in print.
The Press is the mouthpiece of the people. Their aspirations
their purposes, their antipathies, are the staple of its argument
day by day. There is not a wave, not a ripple in the minds of
the community that it does not reflect. It occupies the position
of a perpetual Congress, and the measures upon which it agrees
are invariably adopted before any considerable lapse of time."

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

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